Posted on 12/22/2009 6:34:25 PM PST by sinanju
PLAYBOY: What were your earliest jobs? CAMERON: My first job was at 15, working as an assistant to a crazy Viennese pastry chef in a giant restaurant that served 1,500 dinners a night in Niagara Falls, near where I grew up. A certain kind of showmanship gets in your blood when you grow up in a tourist town. In college in California I worked as a machinist, a bus mechanic, a precision tool and die maker, a high school janitor, whatever I could find. I’m pretty blue collar. I swear like a blue-collar guy when I’m on the set.
PLAYBOY: How did you make the transition to moviemaking? CAMERON: I loved to write, draw and paint, but I also loved physics and astronomy. No career path seemed to reconcile those two directions except science fiction. Two of my closest friends in Fullerton were interested in filmmaking, but there was no film program. We formed a dumb-ass group of eventually four people, and every week one of us made his own little movie in which the other three would have to act, do stunts, set themselves on fire—whatever was necessary. Later we wrote a script and got it to a tax-sheltered group made up mostly of dentists and an investment guy who had dreams of doing Star Wars. We got $20,000 from them, rented a $200,000 camera that we completely disassembled because we had no idea how to operate it, and we made a movie even though we were monkeys and had no idea what we were doing.
PLAYBOY: What impact did Star Wars and George Lucas have on you? CAMERON: My entrée into Hollywood came as a direct result of Star Wars because George Lucas suddenly made science fiction gold instead of a ghettoized B-movie genre...
(Excerpt) Read more at playboy.com ...
Though I'm disinclined to forgive him 2007's absurd "The Lost Tomb of Jesus."
He’s a cinematic genius. I wish he would work with writers though instead of writing his own scripts.
The only reason I read it...;-)
James: "We'd like to rent that nice shiny camera that goes for 200 grand please.
Sales: "sure. you just have to leave a deposit"
James: "Ok, how much?"
Sales: "200 grand"
For the most eloquent commentary on “Avatar” go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAPyipuT-Jg&feature=related
For the original 12-minuet “Xenogenesis” go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMCptmPodzY
not that anyone cares but i really dont like most of his movies
these are the only good ones for me
# Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) (written by)
... aka Terminator 2 - Le jugement dernier (France)
# The Terminator (1991) (VG) (characters)
# The Abyss (1989) (written by)
# Aliens (1986) (screenplay) (story)
# The Terminator (1984) (written by)
I THOUGHT HE LOOKED FAMILIAR! I Iive near Niagara Falls and I am about the same age.. I think I hung around with this dude
start Computer-generated imagery (also known as CGI)
some broad talking about nothing
some dude talking about nothing
Computer-generated imagery (also known as CGI)
more cgi mixed with broad /dude yapping about nothing
the end
Very good read. Actually sounds like a pretty good guy in this interview. Thanks.
Aliens and T2 were definitely anti-corporate.
The Abyss was definitely anti-military (but the love story was great).
True Lies was alright, but don’t count on anyone in Hollywood ever daring to make a movie with A-rab bad guys ever again. Hee, Hee! I’ll bet ol’ Jim wakes up in a sweat every other night for fear that he may be fatwa’d for his “Crimson Jihad” baddies even now.
Titanic wasn’t political but it was definitely obsessed with class warfare (rich people bad, poor people, good).
Settled out of court, wasn’t it?
Do you think M. Night Shyamalan has a similar problem?
The Corporate ‘Man’ holding people back has been a fiction mainstay for decades upon decades. Cameron is simple minded enough in his storytelling that he probably just uses it as a template without thinking about the political implications.
Not counting an early film he had no control over, Cameron has only made seven narrative feature films. So you like over half of them. What’s wrong with True Lies? Arabs as bad guys!
Maybe. But he’s not all that great to begin with.
Half? More like 10% of movies from him in my opinion that are any good ,and bad acting belongs to all not just actors portaying ME
Main point is, plot acting etc etc was week but I expected that from b movie
You listed four films that you said you liked. He’s only made seven. That’s more than half. By my math anyway.
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